203 
97 
PV 1 



The ©Id South and the INW. 



A SPEECH 



Delivered in Charleston, South Carolina, November 20th, 1885, at 
the Opening' of the Industrial Exhibition by 



C0LJI1SWITMR 



Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, 



Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C. 



THE OLD SOOTH AND THE NEW. 



SPEECH 



OF 



Col, Wm, F, Switzler, 



Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, 



Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C. 



Delivered in Charleston, South Carolina, November 20th, 1885, at 
the Opening" of the Industrial Exhibition. 



Statesman Office Book and Job Print. 
Columbia, Mo., 1885. 






D.ofD, 



The ©Id South arid the Jizw. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In rising to respond to the call which has been made upon me 
for remarks on this occasion, I trust there is no indelicacy, but man- 
ifest appropriateness, in my acknowledging the pleasant courtesies 
and distinguished honors which have been tendered me by Mr. 
Courtiiay, the Mayor of Charleston, and by Dr. Rose, the President 
of the Agricultural Society, and by other public-spirited citizens, 
among whom I may mention Dr. Horlbeck and Rev. Dr. Vedder. 

I do not however believe, and shall not for a moment suppose, 
that these marked testimonials of respect are designed for me per- 
sonally, for, personally I am an utter stranger to the people of 
South Carolina, but that they find their inspiration in the regard 
you entertain for the Government and interests which, for the time 
being, I represent and am here to promote; a Government which, 
my fellow-citizens, whatever may have been at any time your 
views in regard to it, your representatives in the Federal Conven- 
tion of 1787 — Rutledge, Butler, and the two Pinckneys — iuded to 
establish, South Carolina the year after it was ordained being one of 
the nine States which ratified the Constitution which that Conven- 
tion adopted. Moreover it is worthy of perpetual remembrance that 
during the war of the Revolution, 1775-1783, South Carolina fur- 
nished more than one-eighth jpflMPk of the entire American 
forces which acheived our independence, although at that time her 
white population was only four per cent, of the population of the 
old thirteen. States. I repeat, that no difference what at any time 
may have been your views of the object, structure and function of the 
Constitution ordained, or of the wisdom of the laws of Congress, it 
is now the universal judgment of the people of your State that this 
is their Constitution and Government, and the Government and 
Flag of their posterity forever. 



4 THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 

During the bloody and fratricidal war through which we so re- 
cently passed, unfortunate divisions and embarrassing complica- 
tions existed on every hand, but let us thank that beneficent 
Providence, who, at all periods of our history held the American 
Republic in the hollow of His hand, that hence forth, North and 
South, East and West, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from 
the rivers to the sea, we are one people, with one ancestry, one 
Constitution, one Flag, and one Destiny — an indestructible Union 
of indestructible States. 

In a letter to the Honorable Mayor of Charleston, who so 
kindly tendered me a welcome to this historic City, I announced 
that my visit had no political significance whatever, but was purely 
official, and the better to enable me to discharge the responsible 
trust in connection with the foreign and internal commerce of the 
country, imposed upon me by the present National Administration 
at Washington. 

When, therefore, I saw in the newspapers that the widely- 
noticed and very creditable industrial exhibit South Carolina made at 
the New Orleans Exposition would be reproduced here, I resolved 
to attend it, believing it would prove to be that which I have found 
it, an epitome of your agricultural and manufacturing industries, 
with many beautiful specimens of the handiwork of women, and 
one of which you have good reason to be proud. Your State is 
the book. This exhibit is the index— the table of contents. 

The Laws of Congress make it the duty of the Chief of the 
Bureau of Statistics, or to more tersely and intelligently define it, 
the Chief of the Bureau of Commercial Statistics, under the direc- 
tion of the Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare and publish for 
the information of Congress and the Country, a report on Internal 
Commerce. What portion of our extended domain should be the 
special subject of this report, is largely within the discretion of the 
Chief of this Bureau. In determining my duty in the premises I 
was greatly embarrassed, for it will be seen at a glance that such a 
report could not embrace the whole country, or even the Missis- 
sippi Valley, and that, therefore, a smaller subdivision of it must 
be selected for special consideration. On examining the reports of 
my predecessors in office I found that the Southern States, includ- 
ing of course the State of South Carolina, had not, in respect to 
their industrial, commercial, educational and transportation in- 



THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 5 

terests, received special attention. I was, therefore, not slow in 
determining- that this group of States presented a very rich and 
inviting' held of investigation and development; and, therefore, I 
determined, with the consent of the Secretary of the Treasury, to 
occupy it, and to make it the subject of a special report. 

This group of States, and, notably, the State of South Carolina, 
is replete with historic interest, and with industrial and commer- 
cial importance. Within the boundaries of this group are exclu- 
sively confined productions without which our foreign commerce 
would be comparatively small, for without cotton and the multi- 
plied forms into which it is manufactured, and sugar, rice, to- 
bacco, and other leading products of their soil, the United States 
could not aspire to be the fourth commercial nation of the world. 
I have mentioned the historic interest which centers in South 
Carolina— an interest which will be the subject not only of the 
statelier utterances of prose, but of the music, of poetry and song 
during all the ages which are to come. 

Were this an historic occasion, and the circumstances propi- 
tious^ and [ had time to speak and you time to hear, I might be 
indulged in recalling some of the more prominent and instructive 
events connected with the colonization and development of your 
State. I might be indulged in wresting from comparative oblivion 
the fact that in 1670, (129 years after the discovery of the Mis- 
sissippi River by De Soto, 50 years after the landing of the Pil- 
grims, and 62 years before the birth of Washington), a colony of 
Englishmen landed at Port Royal, which is now situated in Beau- 
fort, the most north-easterly county of your State, and a region 
famous for the production of sea-island cotton, and there made the 
first permanent settlement. Previous to this— as we are told by a 
recent valuable report by your State Board of Agriculture— several 
unsuccessful efforts at colonization had been made by French and 
Spanish expeditions, but accomplished nothing except to bestow 
upon the province the name of "Carolina", in honor of Charles IX 
of France. This was, in fact, the beginning of the settlement and 
founding of the City of Charleston. 

A glance at the map will show that Port Royal, although it 
had a magnificent harbor, was too near the Spanish settlements 
and their allies, the Indian tribes adjacent, for the peace, safety 
and permanency of the Colony, and within a year thereafter Col. 



6 THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 

William Sayle, the agent of the Lords Proprietors, and the Com- 
mander of the Colony, determined to remove further up the coast, 
so that there should be intervening between the colonists and their 
enemies the several bays, rivers and estuaries which indent the 
coast of Carolina, between Port Royal and the present location of 
Charleston. 

These colonists selected a spot on the west bank of the Ashley 
River, about three miles above the present city, and called it in 
honor of King Charles, "Charles Town." It was soon, however, 
found that the shipping facilities of this location were insufficient, 
and, therefore, by degrees the inhabitants of Charles Town moved 
lower down the river to establish themselves nearer the sea. The 
peninsula of land formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper 
rivers, and then known by the unmusical name of "Oyster Point," 
was low and marshy and cut up by numerous creeks, but there 
was sufficient high ground on the Cooper River side to afford room 
for a settlement, and by 1677 there were enough houses built upon 
it to need some designation, and the new settlement was called "Oyster 
Point Town." Three years afterwards, however, a large majority 
of the colonists moved to this spot, the present site of the city in 
which we are assembled. The seat of government was formally 
transferred to it, and the name was changed to "New Charles 
Town" — both the "Oyster" and the "Point" being consigned to 
history. Two years later the old settlement was virtually aban- 
doned and the new one became the only Charles Town. It was 
then made a port of entry, and in 1685/1 Collector was appointed — 
an anti-type, I suppose, of Mr. Jervey, your present Collector of 
Customs. It was not however until the year 1783, rendered not- 
able in American history because of the termination of the Revo- 
lutionary War and the declaration of peace, that the City was in- 
, corporated by the Provincial Legislature under its present shorter 
name of "Charleston." 

Leaping over more than a century of stirring "incidents by 
flood and field," embracing the chrysalis and colonial period of 
the state, I shall be pardoned if I further digress to say that each 
page of the revolutionary history of South Carolina gleams with 
evidences of heroic devotion to the great truths, to which, as a 
nation, we owe our freedom, and with an eloquence and states- 



THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 7 

raanship which render the fame of her orators and law-givers 
immortal. 

The blood shed and the bravery displayed by your heroic army 
under Gen. Benjamin Lincoln in resisting to "the death" the in- 
vestment and conflagration of Charleston in 1780 by Admiral 
Arbuthnot, Sir Henry Clinton and Col. Tarlton; and at King's 
Mountain, Eutaw Springs, Ninety Six, Saunder's Creek, Cowpens, 
and on the High Hills of Santee will never be forgotten; and the 
fame of Marion, Greene, Pickens, Clark, Lincoln, Whipple, and 
Sumter, (the latter called by Lord Cornwallis, "The Carolina 
Gamecock"), and the heroic exploits of Rebecca Motte and Emily 
Geiger, emblazon the Revolutionary history of this Commonwealth, 
and to-day constitute a part of the rich heritage of proud memo- 
ries vouchsafed to us by a noble ancestry. 

But this exploration into the annals of the past, how partial 
and incomplete soever it is, and interesting and inviting as it may 
be, must cease, because, among other reasons, I appreciate the fact 
that it is a divergence from the true line of thought which brings 
us together. We are assembled not to disclose or investigate the 
early history of South Carolina, and of Charleston, but rather to 
enter upon the contemplation of themes of greater present 
interest to you and the people. What ought to be done, what 
within the range of human agencies can be acheived for the in- 
dustrial, commercial, educational and transportation interests of 
Charleston and of South Carolina and the whole South? What 
processes of logic or law, what exertion of brain or muscle, what 
leadership or power of the press, or outlays of capital and employ- 
ment of labor can soonest and most cheaply and successfully 
quicken the currents of public enterprise, and place more securely 
within your grasp the marvelous possibilities which soil and climate, 
and mine and river, and inlet and ocean beckon you to acheive? 

I am forbidden by the proprieties of the occasion and by a 
want of time from entering upon a discussion of these important 
questions; but I will be pardoned for saying that the cultivation, 
manufacture and exportation of cotton is one of the great para- 
mount, material interests of the people of South Carolina. It is 
not their only interest, but it is one to which they have given 
much attention, and in the rapidly developing future, will, if they 
are wise, render more, not only by improved processes of culture, 



8 THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 

but by increased acreage devoted to cotton (above your 25,000), 
through the subjugation of their large forest-wastes to the use of 
the planter. 

That cotton is an interest of great value to them is attested 
by the fact that there were exported from this city alone during the 
last fiscal year 340,000 bales, or 158,500,000 pounds of this staple, 
worth in "spot cash/' more than $17,500,000. 

It cannot be questioned, therefore, that even the history of 
the production and exportation of this leading staple will be of 
enduring interest to the people of this Commonwealth. So be- 
lieving, I am tempted to glance at it and to say that according to 
reliable history,(*) the first mention of cotton by any writer 
is by Herodotus, about 450 years B. C, and that the culture of 
cotton was first practised in India. It is not however known, 
for history furnishes no means of ascertaining the fact, when 
or by what progressive stages of discovery and invention cotton 
was first utilized by man. 

There is no authentic record of any cotton being manufactured 
in Europe before the tenth century. 

Before the discovery of the Mississippi River, and about the 
year 1536, the cotton plant was found growing in the country 
drained by that stream, and in Texas, but the experiment of its 
culture was not entered upon in the United States before 1621. 
It was first valued as an ornamental plant and cultivated in gar- 
dens or nurtured in boxes or pots. 

It was not until after the revolutionary war, that cotton in 
the United States was cultivated with a view to export, and one 
of the interesting facts connected with its early history on this 
continent is that the first exportation of cotton occurred from the 
port of Savannah in 1784, just one year after the declaration of 
peace. This export consisted of ten bales, and we have the testi- 
mony of authentic history for the statement, that the sailing vessel 
upon which these bales were carried to the port of Liverpool, was 
detained in that port and the Captain of the vessel arrested by the 
municipal authorities on the charge of attempting a fraud upon 
the public; the charge against him being that it was impossible so 
large an amount as ten bales could be produced in the United 
States. 

(•) Johnson's Cyclopedia. 



THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 9 

Observe what we have accomplished in a century: 10 bales 
exported in 1784; 3,969,568 bales exported in 1885! Computing 
each of these bales to be five feet in length, this number, laid end 
to end, would form a continuous line nearly four thousand miles 
long, or from Philadelphia across the ocean to Antwerp, or from 
New York to New Orleans and return, and would cover an area of 
nearly 1,500 acres. 

A year after this initial export, the culture of short staple cot- 
ton was commenced in the United States, and in 1795, 1,000,000 
pounds were exported from this city. Since that time — as we 
learn from the authority already cited — the use of cotton, which 
previously had been limited for the must part to the hot climate 
where it grew, has been marvelously extended, so that at present 
it constitutes not only the entire clothing of a large majority of 
the human race, but it has become a part of the material in which 
the people of all lands and languages are clothed, excepting, per- 
haps, the most debased and savage races of mankind. 

I have here a tabular statement showing the total production 
of raw cotton in the United States, by years, from 1821, which is 
the first year in respect to which we have official data, to 1884; 
and also the exports of cotton from 1791 to the present time. The 
total production in 1821, was 430,000 bales; in 1884, 5,646,441 ! Our 
agricultural experts predict, that notwithstanding the ravages of 
the cotton worm in some of the States, and of unfavorable weather 
during the months of August and September, the cotton produc- 
tion of this country for the present year will reach 6,500,000 bales. 
In 1791, we exported about 190,000 pounds, and in 1826, which 
was the last year the exportations were reckoned in pounds, 
204,500,000. The year preceding our civil war, our exports of cot- 
ton reached 3,126,867 bales, and the year immediately following 
the close of the war (1866), 1,552,457- We have no official data 
of the exports of cotton during the war. 

Our largest export was in 1883, namely, 4,626,808 bales. In 
1784, ten bales; in 1883, more than four millions and a half of 
bales ! 

These interesting and suggestive statistical facts verify the 
statement that the reign of King Cotton in this country is unbrok- 
en, for His Royal Highness continues to furnish the most valu- 
able article of export, so far as the aggregate amount sent abroad 



10 THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 

is concerned, furnished by our country, the total quantity of the 
manufactured article for the past fiscal year footing up the incal- 
culable and marvelous weight of one billion eight hundred and 
ninety odd millions of pounds! 

But cotton is not by any means your only interest or the only 
valuable production of the soil of the South. Sugar, rice and to- 
bacco, and corn and other cereals, and fruits in great variety, are 
successfully cultivated, and are receiving more attention than at 
any time in your history; but I have not time to discuss them or 
to summarize the statistics of their production and value. They 
will receive due attention in the report I am preparing to make to 
the Secretary of the Treasury. 

But there is a wider and even more encouraging view of the 
progress of the industrial, commercial, transportation and educa- 
tional interests of the Southern States. This progress has attract- 
ed attention in all parts of our country, and in the United King- 
dom, and on the continent of Europe. Distinguished economists 
and statesmen, and the conductors of newspapers and other period- 
icals have summarized and discussed this marvellous progress and 
have developed its beneficent influence on the prosperity of the 
people and the institutions of the country. 

Among those who have made valuable contributions to our 
store of knowledge on this subject, I mention with pleasure the 
conductors of the Baltimore Manufacturers' Record, the New 
Orleans Times-Democrat, and your own distinguished fellow-citi- 
zens, F. W. Dawson of the Charleston Neivs and Courier, and Col. 
W. L. Trelholm. 

Gathering important facts and reliable statistics from each of 
these sources, and summarizing them in the briefest possible form 
consistent with justice to the immense interest involved, I state 
on their authority, that since 1879, the South has added 11,000 
miles to her railroad mileage, the building of which, added to the 
investments in old roads and their improvement, foot up but little,. 
if any, short of $500,000,000. 

Elaborate tables are given of the comparative values of prop- 
erty in the South in 1879-80 and 1884-85, which show that in 1880 
the total assessed values in the South were $2,184,208,505, while 
in 1885 they were $3,076,514,435, showing an increase of 



THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. H 

305,930. South Carolina advanced during the same period from 
$137,237,986, to $158,703,000 of assessed values. 

The production of corn has increased from 334,000,000 bushels 
in 1879, to 498,000,000 bushels in 1885— a gain of 165,000,000 
bushels— and of oats, from 42,000,000 bushels to about 70,000,000 
bushels, while of tobacco, fruits and vegetables, the grasses, &c, 
the increase has been equally as satisfactory. In the raising of 
hogs and live stock generally, the same wonderful progress has 
been shown. 

In 1880, the total crop values of the Southern States amount- 
ed to $549,850,000,. and in 1885, to $669,077,000, showing the re- 
markable increase of $119,227,000— an increase of 21.68 per cent. 
In 1880 the value of live stock was $326,378,414, and in 1885 it is 
$562,916,258— an increase of 72.47 per cent. 

The cotton mills have increased from 180 to 353, and the 
number of spindles and looms from 713,989 and 15,222, respect- 
ly, to 1,460,697 and 27,004— a gain of about 100 per cent. Cot- 
ton-seed-oil mills, that in 1880 numbered 40, having a capital of $3,- 
504,500, now number 146, having a capital of $10,792,450. 

In 1880 the South made 397,301 tons of pig iron; in 1884 it 
made 657,599 tons— a gain of 260,298 tons. Three states— Vir- 
ginia, Alabama and Tennessee— that in 1880 produced 178,006 
tons of pig iron, in 1884 produced 481,744 tons— an increase of 
303,738 tons, or 9,500 tons more than the net increase in the 
United States, the production in the whole country outside of 
these three states being less in 1884, than in 1880. 

This is a very remarkable development, and one which is 
worthy of special note. It would seem to justify the opinion ad- 
vanced by many intelligent gentlemen of the South, that the South 
will eventually lead in the production of iron. In verification of 
this view, I am idebted to the Hon. Lee R. Shryock of New York 
City, Ex-President of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, for the 
opinion that no such ores as the great specular and brown hema- 
tite of the States of Alabama and Tennessee, and the magnetic of 
Missouri and Kentucky are to be found anywhere north of the 
Ohio river. It is very true that the Lake Superior Region 
furnishes good ores, but the supply is comparatively small, when 
compared to the immense deposits of the states named. As to 
pig iron, it is an interesting fact that the Old Briarfield Furnace of 



12 THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 

Alabama made during the war the pig iron for the Confederate 
Government; and some from Buffalo Gap in Virginia, that was cast 
into heavy guns at Richmond and Selma, were so tongh and mal- 
leable that it was almost equal to the best bloom or hammered 
iron. Nothing short of heavy charges of gunpowder or dynamite 
would explode these guns. Over fifty captured from the Confed- 
eracy were sold at auction at Salma by the United States Govern- 
ment; they could not be broken, and the buyer had to remove 
them intact at great expense. 

I have recently seen the statement, that the cost of making a 
ton of pig iron in Pennsylvania is about $22; that the quality is 
not so good as the iron manufactured at Birmingham, Ala., and 
Chattanooga, Tenn., and that at these places, pig iron can be pro- 
duced at $11 per ton, and sold at a profit at these figures. It is also 
asserted that the actual cost is only $9 per ton. Whether these 
statements will be verified by more thorough investigation I am 
not able to say. 

In 1880, 6,048,571 tons of coal were mined in the South, and 
in 1884, the output was 10,844,051 tons. 

The amount of phosphate rock mined in South Carolina in 
1880, was 190,000 tons and the capital invested in the business was 
$3,493,300, while now the capital is over $6,500,000 and the 
amount of rock mined largely over 400,000 tons. 

But these are the great interests. There are many other 
small industries all over the South that even more strikingly ex- 
hibit the new spirit which has come over that section. A great 
many local enterprises, such as wagon, chair, broom and furni- 
ture factories, fruit canneries, flour, grist and saw mills, plaining- 
mills, wire factories, potteries, marble and slate works have been 
established to manufacture articles heretofore .brought from the 
North. There has also been an increase in value in the manu- 
facture of the articles into which lumber enters, of $12,700,000 in 
1885, over the valuation of 1880. Taking in all the branches of 
manufactures the valuesare: For 1880, $315,924,774; and for 1885, 
$445,656,000. The total valuation of the South, expressed in dol- 
lars and cents, now is $3,076,514,435, as against $2,184,208,505, in 
1880. This shows an annual increase of productiveness of $300,- 
751,466, or about 30 per cent. 

Summing up the amount of capital and capital stock repre- 



THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 13 

sented by new manufacturing and mining enterprises in the South 
for the first nine months of the present year, the Baltimore 
Record says these aggregated $52,386,300, and distributes them as 
follows: 

Alabama. . .■ $5,854,000 

Arkansas 500,000 

Florida 1,237,000 

Georgia 2,052,000 

Kentucky 14,005,000 

Louisiana 1,955,000 

Maryland 6,107,800 

Mississippi 571,500 

Nortli Carolina 2,543,000 

South Carolina 592,000 

Tennessee 2,300,000 

Texas 2,280,000 

Virginia 2,735,000 

West Virginia 9,644,000 

Total $52,386,300 

Lastly, but not by any means least, are the educational inter- 
ests of the South, in respect to which it is mentioned that, in pro- 
portion to their means, the Southern States are now spending 
more money for education than any other section of the country. 
On good authority it is stated that the ''amount appropriated for 
the Southern public schools to-day is $10,243,857, and that the 
schools have an attendance of 3,011,766 pupils.'" (*) 

This hurried summary, imperfect and impartial as it necessari- 
ly is, presents an encouraging view of the recuperative energies 
of the Southern people, desolated and impoverished as they were by 
the civil war, and affords an earnest that, unless retarded by un- 
wise legislation at home or at Washington, they will not only be- 
come self-sustaining, but the exporters of large amounts of raw 
material and manufactured goods to other States, and to Mexico, • 
Central and South America, and to Europe. 

(*) It is learned from the recent message of Hon. Hugh S. Thompson, Governor of South 
Carolina, that the number of pupils enrolled in the public schools of the State during 
the year just closed was 178,023, of which 78,45S were whites and 99,565 were colored; the 
average attendance was 12-2,093, of wiilcii 55,651 were white, and 66,429 were colored. The 
number of teachers employed was 3,773, being an increase of eighty-nine over the num- 
ber employed during the preceding year; and the number of schools was 3,562, being an 
increase of eighty over tae number in operation during the year 1883-84. The length of 
the school term was three and a half months, a decrease of a half a month. The total 
amount of funds available for school purposes during the year 1883-84, the latest period 
for which reports are attainable, was $515,580.38, of which $441,599.37 was collected dur- 
ing the year, and $73,931.00 consisted of unexpended balances brought forward from 
previous years. The total amount expended was $428,419.41. 



14 THE OLD SOUTH AND THE. NEW. 

Taking a still wider view, and a glance at the foreign com- 
merce of the United States, it will be found that although our im- 
ports and exports of merchandise declined in value from $1,547,020,- 
316, in 1883, its highest point, to $1,319,717,084, in 1885, a falling 
off of 14.7 per cent., as the result of the protracted period of com- 
mercial depression, yet, when we regard it in the light of its gen- 
eral progress since 1860, we find abundant reason for encourage- 
ment. 

During the period from 1860 to 1885, the total value of our 
imports and exports of merchandise increased from $687,192,176, 
to $1,319,717,084, or 92 per cent. Our imports of merchandise 
increased from $353,616,119, to $577,527,329, or 63 per cent., and 
our exports of domestic merchandise increased from $316,242,443, 
to $726,682,946, or 129 per cent. 

When we compare the value of the foreign commerce of the 
leading commercial nations of the world, we find that the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland stands first, Germany 
second, France third, and the United States fourth. 

Examining the statistics of the world's commerce, by coun- 
tries, a distinguished German ec3nomist, (Herr von Neumann 
Spallart), has recently made a publication to prove that the center 
of gravity of the world's commerce is gradually shifting from the 
United Kingdom through Germany to the United States; and my 
conviction is that the facts and statistics clearly enforce the con- 
clusion he has reached. He shows, that while in 1868, the share 
of the United Kingdom in the world's commerce was 24 per cent., 
it had fallen in 1882 to 19.5 per cent., and that of the total foreign 
commerce of Great Britain and the Continent in ]868, Great 
Britain is credited with 34.5 per cent., and in 1882, with only 
29 per cent. 

In 1868, Great Britain produced 53.6 per cent, of the coal 
mined in the world; in 1883 only 47 per cent. 

In 1868, British productions of pig iron amounted to 44.1 per 
cent, of the total, while it was but 39.1 per cent, in 1883. 

Taking next the article of cotton we find that from 1856 to 
1860, the United Kingdom consumed 63 per cent, of all raw cot- 
ton produced on the globe, and the Continent of Europe 39.7 per 
cent.; but that in 1883, the cotton trade of Great Britain decreased 



THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW. 15 

to 52.3 per cent., while that of the Continent had risen to 47.7 per 
cent. 

From this showing it is held that the center of gravity of the 
world's commerce is slowly but surely drifting from Great Britain 
toward Germany, and that it will ultimately rest in the United 
States. 

But I must desist from further discussion of these inviting 
and suggestive themes. 

Fellow Citizens: lam in South Carolina for the first time; 
and more than this, yesterday morning, from a point near your 
Custom house, I saw the ocean for the first time, unless, indeed T 
the logic of your own eminent statesman, Mr. Calhoun, in his 
Memphis speech in 1845, be true, that the Mississippi River, which 
I have seen a thousand times, is an arm of the ocean extended 
inland and lying across the bosom of the Continent. I am here 
with the knowledge and approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
to advance your interests and the interests of the Southern States T 
believing that the industrial and other great interests of these 
States are indissolubly linked to the interests of the Republic. 

I am profoundly gratified to say that evidences greet me on 
every hand — they are to be seen in this Exposition — that under the 
influence of our beneficent institutions, and the quickened currents 
of public enterprise, great possibilities are within the reach of your 
city and Commonwealth and of the whole South. 

As I survey from this platform the group of States whose 
shores are washed by the Mississippi, Ohio and Potomac Rivers, 
or are lashed by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, or the eddying 
currents of the Gulf of Mexico, I catch the brightening radiance 
of a new civilization for the whole country, and behold the rising 
grandeur of a new South — a new Charleston and a new South 
Carolina. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 366 143 ft • 



